Acting the Courage of our Convictions

Today I volunteer ushered at a performance of the play Camp David at Arena Stage. Occasionally, the theatre has a shortage of ushers and puts out a request for people willing to volunteer for a second performance of the same play.  I'd volunteered at the play two weeks ago, but I was available so I thought I'd help.

Usually, when I serve a second performance of the same play, I leave after patrons have been seated, and the play has begun. In the spirit of doing something different (see yesterday,) I stayed and watched the play again. The play is a poignant work.  I was even more moved the second time.

The play synopsizes the behind-the-scenes negotiating executed by then President Jimmy Carter between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin at the Presidential retreat Camp David in the mountains of northern Maryland in 1979.  Still considered Begin's most significant achievement (Wikipedia,) signing of the Camp David Accords was the first time Israel had a negotiated peace with an Arab neighbor since Biblical times.  Following wars between Israel and Egypt in 1967 and 1973 which had cost 100,000 lives, the three key players knew that another war was inevitable, if they couldn't reach an agreement.

During the course of the play, which was based on personal diaries of President Carter and First Lady Rosalind Carter, the audience learns how perilous the potential peace was during the 13 days of negotiation.  Participants recall that Sadat was the only person in the Egyptian delegation, who wanted peace, and Begin was the only one in the Israeli delegation, who did not.  Yet, in no small part due to what each player wanted (or didn't want) for his grandchildren, peace was accomplished. (Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the accomplishment.)

Sometimes the theatre hosts a discussion after thought-provoking plays. I rarely stay. Today I did something else different, especially different for me on a beautiful spring afternoon: I stayed and participated. 

The panel this afternoon was particularly prestigious and apropos:

-Gerald Rafshoon, White House Communications Director under President Carter, one of the few participants at Camp David other than the principals, and collaborator on the writing of the play Camp David
-Anita Dunn, President Obama's Deputy Director of White House Communications and a White House intern in that office at the time of Camp David
-Debra Amos, NPR's Middle East correspondent for many years
-Judy Woodruff, currently co-anchor of the PBS Newshour and former chief White House correspondent for NBC News at the time of Camp David

Their perspectives were insightful.  They added color and pretty much agreed that it was much easier for the President and two other world leaders to disappear on a mountaintop with almost no communication for 13 days, when there were only three major networks and no social media, than it would have been with today's 24/7 news cycle.

However, Rafshoon insisted that the word be "easier" rather than "easy." President Carter was advised against the mission. President Anwar Sadat knew and openly expressed that he was signing his death warrant. Prime Minister Menachem Begin presumed political suicide. They all ended up being right.  (President Carter was not reelected.  Sadat was assassinated the next year by fundamentalists opposed to the Accords.  Begin lived out his life as a recluse.) Yet they were willing to risk everything for the cause of peace in the Middle East. 

As each member of the panel offered concluding remarks, their agreement settled on the conviction, largely of President Carter, to courageously push ahead when his absence from the public eye at a time of much turmoil in his presidency almost assured his defeat.  Several times during his presidency, Rafshoon said of Carter, he insisted on doing what he thought was the "right" thing, even while risking significant political costs.  The willingness of a leader to take those risks today could enable such an effort again, they agreed.

During the course of dialogue between the panel and the audience, at one point the conversation drifted from Camp David to examine similar parallels between President Johnson and the Civil Rights Act.  Long before Vietnam sealed his presidential fate, Johnson had made the decision to pursue civil rights legislation, even when he'd been assured that it would cost him reelection.  Paraphrasing, Johnson had said, "If I can't do something about civil rights, what good is the presidency?"

Abraham Lincoln and Mohandas Gandhi were similar men of conviction who paid the ultimate price to do what was right.

In Leading from the Heart I described leadership as beginning when one person believes he or she can make a difference and then having the faith and conviction to pursue what they can to make that difference.  If the leader can dream it, I said, the true leader sets about to make it happen.  These were men dreaming something bigger than themselves and then acting the courage of their convictions, without concern for the personal consequences. 

The course of human history has been punctuated by a few courageous souls who were unwilling to sit with the status quo and chose to create meaningful change.  There is something that each of us can do to make the world a better place.  Still we often hold back for fear of personal consequences.  The message on the back of each of our hearts is nagging at us to do something. ("Intention," 3/13/14) The next time I feel that strong tug, I will remember Camp David and the courage of those men to make peace.


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